A blog about engagement and marketing

What will Domino’s do?

“Domino’s Rogue Employees Do Disgusting Things To The Food, Put It On YouTube.”

Seriously. They essentially spit and fart on the food, with one dude sticking a piece of cheese up his nose then putting it on a sandwich. An employee filmed all this, and put it up on YouTube. This is why:

I am sorry about all of this! It was all a prank and me nor Michael expected to have this much attention from the videos that were uploaded! No food was ever sent out to any customer. We would never put something like that on you tube if it were real!! It was fake and I wish that everyone knew that!!!! Michael never would do that to any customer, EVER!! I AM SOO SORRY! You see all the time of the pranks that people upload and the pranks need to seem real in order to get a laugh out of people but this prank was very very immature and I am sorry for the embarrasment that I have caused your company

See. It was a prank. And in order to get traction, or ‘go viral’, one needs to make them seem real — you know, the whole method actor thing. But it’s not real, says the one who filmed it.

In response to this, Domino’s Pizza wrote this, which I think is the most interesting part:

“The “challenge” that comes with the freedom of the internet is that any idiot with a camera and an internet link can do stuff like this – and ruin the reputation of a brand that’s nearly 50 years old, and the reputations of 125,000 hard-working men and women across the nation and in 60 countries around the world. Tim McIntyre
Vice President, Communications
Domino’s Pizza, LLC

He’s right. The challenge moving forward isn’t just from outside the company. The challenge is also from within. Domino’s asked the employee to take down the video, and that happened, but not before people grabbed it. It’s out there now. And the question will be, will more people see the video than the plea that it was faked?

Any Tom, Dick or Sally can videotape anything now. Which means, the question isn’t how would a brand respond. The question is, are they even prepared to?

Would you get ahead of this by telling Domino’s to address it on their front page? Or how about on their Facebook page, where a link to it sits on top of the page.

The link at the top is to the video

Or is the hope that this goes away, as if that’s even an option anymore.